China gravely concerned over human rights violations against migrants by some western nations: diplomat

GENEVA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- In a latest move to uncover human rights problems of some western countries, China has said that it is gravely concerned about the violations of the rights of migrants and refugees by, among others, the United States, the European Union, Britain, Australia and Canada.

In a statement delivered Wednesday to the ongoing 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said some countries have held migrants in immigration detention centers with poor conditions for a prolonged period of time.

"At these detention centers, the lack of basic services including food, water and medical service has caused a large number of abnormal death of migrants. These detention centers were the hardest hit areas during the COVID-19 pandemic," Jiang told the Council.

"We are concerned in particular that the United States continued to separate families by forcibly pulling migrant children away from their parents. Many children ended up losing touch with their parents and families, which led to grave human tragedies," he added.

According to the Chinese diplomat, some countries even held migrants in offshore detention centers where migrants were subjected to abuse. In some countries, immigration detention centers are run by private institutions, where incidents of mistreatment and excessive use of force are frequent, and the human rights of migrants are violated.

He further called on the Human Rights Council and other UN institutions to continuously attend to human rights violations at immigration detention centers in the countries concerned.

The Chinese diplomat urged the countries concerned to stop immediately human rights violations at immigration detention centers, close all offshore detention centers, halt at once the family separation practice, and respect and protect the human rights of migrants, especially migrant children.